


Hold On Tight

by time_converges



Category: Elementary (TV)
Genre: Drug Use, Episode Tag, F/M, Relapse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-16
Updated: 2015-05-16
Packaged: 2018-03-30 20:45:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3951130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/time_converges/pseuds/time_converges
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the second night after he comes back before she sleeps.  Episode Tag/Missing scenes from the Season 3 finale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hold On Tight

**Author's Note:**

> "A controlled descent is still falling." - Warren Ellis
> 
> "Hold on tight, this ride is a wild one." - All Time Low

It’s the second night after he comes back before she sleeps.

Joan rides with Alfredo in the ambulance, alternating reassuring him that he’ll be okay with checking her phone for a return text from Sherlock. Once she makes sure Alfredo is settled in the hospital, and that his mother is on the way, she steps into the hallway to call the number for Sherlock. There’s no answer. She texts him again. 

She doesn’t sleep. She paces. At midnight she texts Marcus, who responds immediately. The police find the phone, and Oscar, and the body of his sister, but no Sherlock.

Late in the morning she gets a call from an unfamiliar number.

“Watson,” Sherlock says, his voice slow and slurred. Her heart sinks.

“Where are you?” she asks.

He tells her, and she’s already out the door as she says, “Wait there. I’m on my way.”

“Sorry,” he mumbles.

“Don’t hang up, please.”

She brings him back to the brownstone – he’s already coming down from the high, and she can’t talk him into the hospital. Truthfully, she wants him home, and she convinces herself she can handle it. She is a doctor, he told her how much he took, she can deal with it. 

He lets her take away the small metal box, and lets her undress him and put him in bed. She’s thankful he can’t see her hands shaking. He’s unconscious before she even gets the covers over him, and she pulls the chair closer so she can watch him. She texts Marcus, but doesn’t answer when he calls back. She doesn’t sleep.

The next morning he goes up to the roof, she thinks to go sit with the bees, but she finds him on the opposite side of the roof with his back to the hives. She brings him a breakfast tray, but he doesn’t touch it. She takes the cold food back downstairs later in the morning.

She sits with him, reading while he just stares out over the city. She brings up Clyde, in one of his little cozies, but Sherlock doesn’t even glance at him. It’s probably too cold for him up here anyway.

She brings him lunch, and later, dinner, but he only drinks the tea she brings. 

She puts an extra blanket around his shoulders. “I’ll be right downstairs,” she says, and he nods slightly. That night, exhausted, she drops into bed and sleeps.

At breakfast, he eats the toast, but nothing else. She considers that a small victory. 

“I have a client meeting. I’ll be back in an hour. I’ll have my phone on, so you can reach me.” He doesn’t answer, but puts his phone in his pocket when she hands it to him.

She makes an appointment with her therapist. She goes to the office, buts she doesn’t go in. She’s been through this before, with Liam. There’s nothing new the therapist can tell her. Relapse is often part of recovery, she repeats to herself for the thousandth time. 

He comes down to the kitchen for dinner, and she sits with him afterward, updates him on how Alfredo is doing, on the client meeting, the fact that Oscar is in the hospital but won’t say who beat him up. Sherlock doesn’t answer.

The third day she brings him breakfast in the library, where he’s just staring at the books, but he only eats the toast again. She forces herself to eat the eggs.

“I have another meeting. I’ll be back soon. Ms. Hudson says she’ll fix you lunch,” she says, pulling on her coat. He doesn’t look at her, only stands and climbs the stairs to the roof.

Her phone rings when she returns that evening – Mr Holmes’ assistant, with the news that Sherlock’s father is on his way. She relays the news to Sherlock, but he doesn’t respond. 

“I’ll be just downstairs,” she says. She stays awake for a long time, flipping through a book she isn’t really reading. She drifts off, finally, the light still on. She awakens in the middle of the night to find him sitting in the usual chair, watching her sleep. 

“Sherlock,” she says. After a long moment, when he doesn’t respond, she adds, “Have you slept?”

His voice is rough. “No.”

She props herself up with the pillows, waiting.

“It is dangerous to be my friend,” he says finally.

Ah. “Alfredo is still alive.” She pauses a moment, then adds, “So is Oscar.” But Andrew isn’t. Liam probably is.

He nods. 

She considers him for a moment, then reaches a decision. “Come to bed.”

He sighs and stands, starting to walk out of the room.

“No, I said come to bed, not go to bed.” She slides over to give him room, and he blinks at her for a moment.

“Watson—“

“Just sleep, Sherlock. Come here.”

He obeys slowly, shuffling over and climbing into the bed next to her. She turns off the light, then slides down to stretch out next to him, and he turns on his side to face her.

“If anything were to happen to you—“ he says, and her eyes fill with tears that she doesn’t let spill over. 

“I’m right here, I’m fine,” she says, only a slight shake in her voice. She reaches out to lay her hand lightly on his chest. 

“Father will probably kick us out of the brownstone.”

“Then we’ll find somewhere else to live.”

He covers her hand with his, pressing it to his chest. “Watson.”

“Holmes,” she says. “Go to sleep. We’ll deal with the morning when it comes.”


End file.
